# Digital footprint

> The trail of data you leave behind every time you use the internet.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Security
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/digital-footprint/
- In Spanish: [Huella digital en internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/digital-footprint/)

Your **digital footprint** is everything about you that ends up online or in someone's database because you used the internet. Part of it you leave on purpose: posts, photos, comments, reviews, a profile on a job site. That is the active footprint. The rest you leave without noticing: the location your phone reports, the pages you visit, what you buy, which ads you click, the cookies that follow you from site to site. That is the passive footprint, and it is usually much bigger.

It matters because it is hard to erase and easy to search. A recruiter can find an old post. A scammer can learn your pet's name, your school and your birthday, which are classic answers to security questions, and use them for phishing or identity theft. Companies called data brokers collect and sell profiles built from these traces. Even a photo can reveal where you live through its metadata or what is visible out the window.

You cannot live with zero footprint, but you can shrink it. Search your own name now and then. Review the privacy settings of your social networks, delete accounts you no longer use, and think twice before posting where you are in real time. In many countries, data protection laws such as GDPR give you the right to ask a company what it holds about you and to delete it.

## An analogy

Walking on a beach of wet sand. Some footprints you make on purpose, writing your name; most you leave just by walking. The tide does not come in very often online.

## Keep in mind

- Active footprint: what you post on purpose. Passive: what is collected as you browse.
- The passive part is usually bigger and less visible.
- Old traces can feed scams, identity theft or doxxing.
- Shrink it: check privacy settings, delete old accounts, search your name.

## Go deeper

- [Digital footprint on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_footprint)
- [What is a digital footprint? (Kaspersky)](https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-digital-footprint)

## Related terms

- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [Cookies](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cookies/): Small notes a website asks your browser to keep, so it can recognize you later.
- [Online scams](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/online-scams/): Tricks that use messages, sites and apps to get you to hand over money or data.
- [Phishing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/phishing/): A fake message that tricks you into handing over a password or a payment.
- [Identity theft](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/identity-theft/): Someone uses your personal details to pass as you, usually to borrow or buy in your name.
- [Metadata](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/metadata/): Data that describes other data: who made it, when, where and what it contains.
- [Personal data and GDPR](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/personal-data-and-gdpr/): Information about you, and the laws that say who can use it and how.